CSOs Submit Petition To Buhari, Demand Probe Of EFCC Under Bawa

EFFC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa

ANTI-CORRUPTION Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and lawyers, yesterday, submitted a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari over what they described as brazen disobedience of court orders by the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa.

They alleged reckless politicisation of the Commission under Bawa’s watch and his continued stay in office, despite a court order committing him to prison for contempt.

In a statement signed by spokesperson for the over 130 CSOs and more than 20 lawyers, Olufemi Lawson, the activists disclosed that they had also submitted a copy of the petition to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba.

This, according to them, is “to intimate the police authority that a convict should not be allowed to walk freely when should be reined in as ordered by the courts.”

Urging President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately suspend Bawa to restore confidence in the capacity of the Commission to truly fight financial crime, they also told him to direct the IGP to effect his arrest in line with a court order, They also demanded investigation into the workings of EFCC, its present engagements and happenings within it.

In the petition, a copy of which was made available to the press, the activists stated: “It is on the basis of the continued perpetration of illegality in the EFCC, that we promptly alerted the nation to it, issuing a seven-day ultimatum to the IGP to effect Bawa’s arrest and make him face justice.
“It is worrisome that weeks after we issued this ultimatum, Bawa is still walking free, continuing the perpetration of illegality that has become the identity of the EFCC.”